[eXquisite Inception]

Caffeine Crystal

ANNIE CAVANAGH AND DAVID MCCARTHY

This false-color scanning electron micrograph shows caffeine crystals. In plants, caffeine functions as a natural pesticide that paralyzes and kills some insects.

The main crystals were 400-500 microns long; however, this crystal group formed on the end of the larger crystal and measures around 40 microns in length. The judges selected this image because it's such an unfamiliar perspective: “It's a bright, intricate image of something that most of us experience every day."

 

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I'm standing on the edge of me.